Standing Session

American

Amy Parsons (California State University Maritime Academy)
apar@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

This session welcomes papers that explore any aspect of American Literature before 1865, including American Renaissance, Colonial, and Puritan literature. While we are open to papers dealing with a variety of topics and authors during this time period, we are particularly interested in papers that engage with the special conference theme of "Send in the Clowns." If your paper does not tap into these specific themes but deals with literary topics relevant to this era, you are still more than welcome to submit a proposal. Possible topics could also include, but are not limited to: archetypal clowns, fools, and idiots; dramaturgical or fictive clowns; purgative laughter or farce; clowning as a political discourse; feminist discourses of the carnivalesque and clowning; representations of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and coulrophilia (love of clowns); horror clowns; cuadrillas and other latinadad payasos; or ritual clowns at the US Borderlands.

This session welcomes papers that explore any aspect of American Literature before 1865, including American Renaissance, Colonial, and Puritan literature. While we are open to papers dealing with a variety of topics and authors during this time period, we are particularly interested in papers that engage with the special conference theme of "Send in the Clowns." If your paper does not tap into these specific themes but deals with literary topics relevant to this era, you are still more than welcome to submit a proposal. Possible topics could also include, but are not limited to: archetypal clowns, fools, and idiots; dramaturgical or fictive clowns; purgative laughter or farce; clowning as a political discourse; feminist discourses of the carnivalesque and clowning; representations of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and coulrophilia (love of clowns); horror clowns; cuadrillas and other latinadad payasos; or ritual clowns at the US Borderlands.